Artists Respond Against the Environmental Crisis: Planting the Apple That Dropped on Newton's Head

During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his last major projects. Famed for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a international event to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, inviting cultural workers to stand against the ongoing loss of species. “Our task is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way the environmental art day was established, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his later life, notes his drive for action. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, Remember Nature may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its influence can still be observed in movements like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their work. That’s why she is relaunching it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Among the featured creators involved this time are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. They have all produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), genetics (exploring the hereditary traits), and geography (tracing the backgrounds of how different apples arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. Each has background narratives. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see the variety and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

Within the city, a participant’s Book of Loss will involve participants searching a major gallery on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in recent years. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. When located, a chime will sound and a reading will be performed to commemorate that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be putting on a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a community dinner, made using sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her musical project, in which local singers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that document their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can provoke a sense of responsibility from us all. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the event he is intending to address an iconic figure. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. That ongoing series commenced following he experienced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to plant pansies at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the incidents and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and